Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Guide to trees of Papua New Guinea
Copyright held by the authors, National Herbarium of New South Wales, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Aceratium muellerianum Schltr.

Botanische Jahrbucher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie Vol. 54: 107 (1916)

Other Literature: M.J.E. Coode, Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea Vol. 2: 43-44 (1981) Fig. 13.

Family: Elaeocarpaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Occasional timber species

Field Characters: Small sub-canopy tree (5-20 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to c. 30 cm diam.); straight (bole up to c. 15 m long); buttresses buttresses absent; spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark pale green or grey, smooth; Subrhytidome (under-bark) green; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze white or pale yellow, markings absent; inner blaze white or pale yellow, markings absent; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present, hairs dense.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, opposite (in pairs, opposite one another on the branchlet), simple (a leaf composed of a single blade); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves broadest at or near middle or broadest below middle, 9.0-15.0 (-20.0) cm, (3.0-) 4.0-8.0 (-10.0) cm; symmetric, entire or serrate to dentate (toothed) (shortly distantly), not dissected or lobed, acute or often acuminate, venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green or brown (pale brown hairs), upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) present, indumentum (hairs) dense; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, flowers on an unbranched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 18.0-25.0 mm long, diameter large (more than10 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white (cream-coloured) or pale yellow; 5, free; stamens 5, present, free of each other, free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 3-4; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on unbranched axis, fruit 30.0-45.0 mm long, red, not spiny, fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe; seeds 1-2, much more than 10 mm long, not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam.

Distribution: Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands & Central.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details

.